Tag Archives: Environment

Once upon a time

01 Friday Jan 2016

Posted by in Buddha, Business

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Where are we taking the earth?
Making it full of pieces or full of peace?
Are we gifting our generations hate or harmony?

Check this wikipedia link Terror incidents in 2015. It had to be divided in 2 half and monthly status, where are we taking our civilization? Ashes!China Air

Once upon a time
the pasture was greener
the air was cleaner
Water was transparent
and environment was pleasant

Wish we all sign-off 2015 with a commitment to ourselves that we would do what we can for making the environment as good as it was Once upon a time and harbor peace.

Wish you all a Very Happy New Year. Hope sense prevails we work towards better environment and society in 2016. Wish we learn that we grow if we keep in mind ‘interdependent co-arising’ we all grow together and we have to grow together otherwise there is only false sense of personal growth / wealth or health.

The topic of LBC was suggested by Lin for the weekly Friday Loose Bloggers Consortium where currently eight of us are supposed to write on the same topic every Friday. The seven other bloggers who are expected to write regularly are, in alphabetical order are Ashok, gaelikaa, Lin, Maxi,Padmum, Rummuser and Shackman. Do drop in on their blogs and see what their take is on this week’s topic. Since some of them may post late, or not at all this week, do give some allowance for that too!

Image source – CNN.com – China Parade blue sky!

Served by biases

14 Saturday Jun 2014

Posted by in Business

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Though the technology has made things / opinions / news available and discoverable, however this has resulted in information overload as well. This information overload has made us divide, restructure and focus on what we (as an individual) want to read, know and learn. Look at the image, for example from The Indian Express news site. There are many such examples, where we are served by biased news (in India many people call it paid media). Recently, Network18 group was acquired by Reliance group.

What you want to readThis content customization or focus (in marketing called as targeting) of each one of us is actually alienating us from many realities. Reason for that is – we either do not know what actually happened but are bombarded by the other side with their perspective. In that case responsibility lies with us to know or try to understand what is actually happened. Thanks to the customization and therefore negative information we have already received from our “sources” we do not know what is right and if something is serious. I have been occasionally termed biased when I tried to provide different perspectives. Tough time! one has to live through it.

Take an example of environmental damages. If you followed environmental cause related opinion makers you could know something wrong is happening, but if you are just following weather reports – you would say everything is ok! this year this typhoon, tsunami, hurricane, earthquake happened. Why? Well, have we asked these questions? Can we identify or try to search for the reasons for such changes in environment? Monsoon in India is delayed this year, can we ascertain reasons; and if we can avoid the reasons.

We make our economics / political / national / Environmental opinions based on such biases. Take an example of economics. Capitalists’ project their system is right, socialists (communists) projects wrongs in the capitalists approach and vice versa. Is there a possibility when we think and design something which tries to bring good from different systems? Think, open your mind and look at the bigger picture. Should not we ask ourselves – are we served unbiased information or we are seeing what powerful people want to show us.

Disclaimer – The author has no intentions to tarnish image of Indian Express/Network18. It was the easiest available screenshot for providing author’s perspective.

World minus some electronic junk

27 Friday Dec 2013

Posted by in Business

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I am on leave for a couple of days. So, I went to meet my sister. She had been thinking of buying a mobile for a long time now. Not surprisingly she had at least 3 old handsets, besides 1 working handsets. Alas! we bought one for her.  While on our way to purchase new mobile, I told her – “these things are electronic waste you are keeping with yourself, sell old when buying new one”. Question is – is it a/’the’ solution? Selling & the buyer dumping that cheap plastic somewhere?

I came across this website (Link – https://phonebloks.com/en) and its product – PhoneBloks in Oct. I signed in to their petition and remembered this is a good solution. The concept is very simple, interesting yet seems difficult to realize. Watch video for more.

This seemingly simple approach can help resolve problem of electronic junk from the world.

The other thing that came to my mind was this. What if we look at 24 hours of our day as blocks? We make these blocks as personal time, reading news paper, travel to office, office hours, eating out, weekly purchasing, sleeping, socializing, social networks and “rest of the time”. If we fix these “TIME BLOCKS” in our 24 hours wont it make our life easier to manage? Yes it is tough to squeeze in so many thing, however if a company can try it for Phones why not we try to do it for ourselves?

Budget 2013 & rainwater harvesting

01 Friday Mar 2013

Posted by in Business

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I was on twitter when Budget speech was going on. I read investment in so many good projects and felt good about it. Suddenly realized – wait, should I objectively look at the expenditure? How are these expenditure be accounted for and use? What best use is possible of this money? Can we reduce some expenses by approaching a lot of things differently? Though I did not mean overlooking required support to common man, but still is there any alternative way? Is there any Jugad as we call in Hindi.

My previous blog was on the plight of farmers in Maharashtra – Self respect. In Budget 2013 Drinking water and sanitation is allocated 15,000 Cr and watershed 5000 Cr. So, I connected these thoughts and remembered a discussion with my father last Sept when I went to Indore. We discussed that the area of Indore is about 500 square-KM. Each year Indore receives average of 39 inches of rainfall about 1 meter. Rainfall is calculated as based on a simple method – how much water would a container receive in the rains, if the container is kept open under the sky?

If only 10% of this rainwater is harvested, how much would it be? This 10% is very least which can be done. Right now I can think of  this 10% as roof tops of private & public buildings, unused space under Govts possession e.g. polo ground (a place in Indore), University &  college grounds and say roads (with proper water canal diverting water to the harvesting area).

Based on the definition of rainfall measurement if that 10% is the container, this container would be of a size of 10% of 500 square-KM

Container size would be about 50 square-KM.

This container can accumulate a whooping 50 square-KM water upto 1 meter height during the rains.

Let me convert it into cubic meters – 50X 1000 X 1000 (Square meters) X 1 meter

50,000,000 cubic meters of water!

If it is assumed that population of Indore is 2,000,000 and each individual uses 40 cubic meter water per year, 63% of the water requirement (50,000,000/2,000,000X40) of Indore can be fulfilled by harvested rainwater itself. The surplus saved water (which otherwise required in Indore) can be used by farmers around Indore. What if that is done all over India? Government can save a lot of extravagant expense on  irrigation & drinking water schemes.

Advantages –

1. Budget money saved by water harvesting

2. Life saved by reducing chances of drought

3. Increased agriculture produce due to availability of water – addition to the GDP!

I belong to a small district headquarter Dhar in MP. About a thousand years ago a King ruled Dhar – Raja Bhoj. It is said that during his tenure he made 12 lakes for water. All these lakes were connected to each other for collecting rainwater. If during rains one lake overflows, the water would flow to the other. This was 1000 years back. I wonder what are we doing now.

Now watch this Ted talk for solution implemented even before Britishers came to rule India. There is hope, just Wake up and take action.